2017 Ambassadors

Each year we approach independent artists we love and admire and to help us spread the word of Fringe. This year we have enlisted artists who use their position to speak out about issues that are important, who comment on the world around them through their craft. In the world in which we now live independent voices are evermore vitally important, and this collection of talented folk speak up when needed and inspire at will.

This year’s ambassadors are:

Ben Quilty

“I am an artist and it’s really important that some of us are doing it, against all the odds, against absolutely zero support from the broader society… I do have things that I want to say. And I don’t really take the backward step of feeling guilty about that.” quote from Ben Quilty: The Accidental Artist by Tracey Clement

Benjamin Law

“The arts are central to who we are. And some of my happiest experiences as an audience member has been watching shows made on the fringes: passion projects fueled by late-night hours and early-morning starts, made on shoestring budgets with the core conviction that something’s worth sharing.”

betty grumble

“The voice of the independent arts should and can reflect the song, shriek, whisper, cackle, chatter towards independence itself.”

Candy Royalle

“A fringe festival must celebrate those who are too often pushed out into the furthermost fringes: we the queers, we the people of colour, we who identify as women, we who have had to fight to be heard above the din of the same white noise playing on repeat.”

tim Freedman

“Welcome to the Sydney Fringe, where the artists answer only to themselves and where eccentricity is not hammered down by the sheer heft of the mass media.